Notes and
Reflections for a talk on Franciscan Mysticism by Maury Smith
2d Fran Test Leper mjs.doc
.
The Leper in the Testament of St. Francis
Outline of Topics:
Reflections on the Testament of St.
Francis
Survey of the Leper in Francis’s writings.
Notes on MICHAEL F. CUSATO’s “OF SNAKES AND ANGELS”
pp. 68-74
Reflections on the Testament of St.
Francis
The
Testament of St. Francis is a very rich document written towards the end of
Francis’ life. Some scholar surmise that
Francis’ wrote perhaps a couple of testaments.
There are many things to be learned from the study of the Testament,
especially as regards the values of Francis that were dear to his heart. At this time I want to look at the Testament
form the viewpoint of the mysticism of Francis. As a result of this viewpoint I
am primarily focusing on Francis’ experience with the leper. I will note
several parts of the text that I have underlined. Please keep in mind that this is the sick
dieing Francis who is reflecting on his life and no doubt what he wishes to
pass on to the friars and in this context the first experience that comes to
him is his early experiences with the lepers.
Another
important understanding of the Testament is that this is the most personal
testimony of Francis about his inner life.
No where else does he write so intimately.
The
Testament (1226)a FAED I pp 124-127
p 124
[for the Fran. Mysticism session I underlined parts..]
1 The Lord gave me, Brother
Francis, thus to begin doing penance in this way: for when I was
in sin, it seemed too bitter
for me to see lepers. 2 And the Lord Himself led me among them
and / showed mercy (Sir 35:4) to
them.c 3 And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body. And afterwards I delayed a
little and left the world.
4 And the
Lord gave me such faith in churches that I would pray with simplicity in
this way and say: 5 "We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, in
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all Your
churches throughout the whole world and we bless You because by Your holy cross
You have redeemed the world.""
6
Afterwards the Lord gave me, and
gives me still, such faith in priests who live according to the rite of
the holy Roman Church because of their orders that, were they to persecute me,
I would still want to have recourse to them.
7 And if I
had as much wisdom as Solomon and found impoverished priests of this world, I
would not preach in their parishes against their will. 8 And I desire to
respect, love and honor them and all others as my lords. 9 And I do not want to
consider any sin in them because I
discern the Son of God in them and they are my lords. 10 And I act in
this way because, in this world, I see nothing corporally of the most high Son
of God except His most holy Body and
Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others. l want to
have these most holy mysteries honored and venerated above all things and I
want to reserve them in precious places. l2 Wherever I find our Lord's most
holy names and written words in unbecoming places, 1 want to gather them up and
I beg that they be gathered up and placed in a becoming place.'3 And we must
honor all theologians and these who minister the most holy divine words and
respect them as those who minister to us spirit and life.
14 And
after the Lord gave me some brothers,
no one showed me what I had to do, but the
Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the
pattern of the Holy Gospel. 15And I had this written down simply and in a
few words and the Lord Pope confirmed it for me. 16 And those who came to
receive life gave whatever they had to the poor and were content with one
tunic, patched inside and out, with a cord and short trousers. 17 We desired
nothing more-18 We clerical [brothers] said the Office as other clerics did;
the lay brothers said the Our Father; and we quite willingly remained in
churches. '9 And we were simple and subject to all.
20 And I worked
with my hands, and I still desire to work; and I earnestly desire all brothers
to give themselves to honest work.21 Let those who do not know how to work
learn, not from desire to receive wages, but for example and to avoid
idleness.22 And when we are not paid for our work, let us have recourse to the
table of the Lord, begging alms
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from door
to door. 23The Lord revealed a
greeting to me that we should say: "May the Lord give you peace."
24 Let the
brothers be careful not to receive in any way churches or poor dwellings or
anything else built for them unless they are according to the holy poverty we
have promised in the Rule.3 As pilgrims and strangers, let them always be
guests there.
25 I
strictly command all the brothers through obedience, wherever they may be, not
to dare to ask any letter from the Roman Curia, either personally or through an
intermediary, whether for a church or another place or under the pretext of
preaching or the persecution of their bodies.b" 26 But,
wherever they have not been received, let them flee into another country to do
penance with the blessing of God.
27 And I
firmly wish to obey the general minister of this fraternity and the other
guardian whom it pleases him to give me. 28And I so wish to be a captive in his
hands that I cannot go anywhere or do anything beyond obedience and his will,
for he is my master.
29And
although I may be simple and infirm, I nevertheless want to have a cleric
always with me who will celebrate the Office for me as it is prescribed in the Rule.
30 And let
all the brothers be bound to obey their guardians and to recite the Office
according to the Rule. 31 And if some might have been found who are not
reciting the Office according to the Rule and want to change it in some way, or
who are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may have found one
of them, be bound through obedience to bring him before the custodian of that
place nearest to where they found him.c
32 And let the custodian be strictly bound through obedience to
keep him securely day and night as a man in chains, so that he cannot be taken
from his hands until he can personally deliver him into
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the hands
of his minister. 33 And let the minister be bound through obedience to send him
with such brothers who would guard him as a prisoner until they deliver him to
the Lord of Ostia, who is the Lord, the Protector and the Corrector of this
fraternity.
34 And the
brothers may not say: "This is another rule."a Because
this is a remembrance, admonition, exhortation, and my testament, which I,
little brother Francis, make for you, my blessed brothers, that we might
observe the Rule we have promised in a more Catholic way.
3 5 And let
the general minister and all the other ministers and custodians be bound
through obedience not to add to or take away from these words. 36 And let them
always have this writing with them together with the Rule.
37 And in
all the chapters which they hold, when they read the Rule, let them also read
these words. 38 And I strictly command all my cleric and lay brothers, through
obedience, not to place any gloss upon the Rule or upon these words saying:
"They should be understood in this way." 39 But as the Lord has given
me to speak and write the Rule and these words simply and purely, may you
understand them simply and without gloss and observe them with a holy activity
until the end.
40 And
whoever observes these things, let him be blessed in heaven with the blessing
of the Most High Father, and on earth with the blessing of His Beloved Son with
the Most Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, and all the powers of heaven and with all
the saints. 41 And, as far as I can, I, little brother Francis, your servant,
confirm for you, both within and without, this most holy blessing. . FAED
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Click on Testament here for the
full text.)
2. Reflections on
the Testament:
First of all, let
us remind ourselves of the context of the Testament historically beginning with
the resignation of Francis as minister general (
I am using Noel Muscat’s Chronology of the Sources at www.ofm.org.mt/noelmuscat
and given that the sources were not written in the our age of scientific
history he has compiled his educated estimate of events and dates. As always we
must admit we do not have all the historical facts we would like to have.
See the commentaries by the three editors of the three
volumes of FAED provide outstanding introductions to each volume and to each
biography or writing in the three volumes. Reading all of them is a variable
course in Franciscan Studies.
In reality to a
certain extent, this conflict over who Francis is and what he intended for the
Order has been debated for 800 years.
Although it takes different shapes and forms and naming it is part of
Franciscan life, and rightfully so for a vital and true effort to draw near the
ideals of Francis.
The Earlier Rule
is written about 1209-1210 and continues to be “developed in light of the
experiences of the brothers.” (see FAED p. 63) This early rule was given a
final redaction at the Chapter of 1221. However, it is the later Rule of 1223
that became the official Rule of the Franciscan Order.
Recall the
context that was given for the Stigmata and the Canticle.
So now the
conflict among different parties in the Order continues and Francis is on his
death bed.
He writes the
testament.
In terms of
focusing on Francis’ mystical experiences, the Testament is the only document
we have written by Francis himself that at least gives us some personal
testimony of his conversion experience. All the rest of the mystical
experiences of Francis are from the hagiographers who had materials from the
early friars.
While his tear-filled eyes
were gazing at the Lord's cross, he heard with his bodily ears a voice coming
from that cross telling him three
times:
"Francis, go and repair my
house which, as you see, is all being destroyed."Trembling, Francis
was stunned at the sound of such an astonishing voice, since he was alone in
the church; and as he absorbed the power of the divine words into his heart,
he fell into an ecstasy of mind. At last, coming back to himself, he prepared himself to obey and pulled
himself together to carry out the
command of repairing the material church, although the principal intention
of the words referred to that which Christ purchased with his own blood, as the
Holy Spirit taught him and as he himself
later disclosed to the brothers.FAED II p. 536
Francis begins
the Testament in the very first line by revealing his conversion experience
with the lepers. We will come back to this.
Again, reviewing
an overview of the Testament with a focus on mysticism, note that Francis uses
the phrase “the Lord gave me” (dedit) four times (Sentence 1, 4, 6, 14). The
verb revealed (revelavit) is used twice: “the Most High Himself revealed to me
(s 14) and “The Lord revealed a greeting to me.”(s 23). Once he used “discern” (discerno, s 9) and
once “the Lord gave me and gives (dat) me still.” (s 6)
How are these
expressions (dedit, dat, discerno, relelavit) to be interpreted. What do they mean in terms of Francis’
mystical experience. Certainly Francis is tell us he had inspiration from the
Lord.
But what kind of
inspiration. Now this is why I struggle
with a psychospiritual hermeneutic that I attempted to explain as a preface to
this talk.
Do these
expressions simply mean that Francis has an inspiration,
that he was
praying or thinking about his vocation and
this is the idea
that he discovered within himself.
Or are these
expressions a result of insights gathered from meditating on the Gospels
Or are these
expressions revelations from God similar to the crucifix of San Damiano which
literally spoke to him.
“As soon as he
had this feeling, there occurred something unheard
of in previous ages:
with the lips of the painting, the image
of Christ crucified spoke to him.
"Francis,"
it said, calling him by name, ‘go
rebuild My house; as you see, it is all being destroyed.’” FAED II 2C
Chapter VI, p. 249
Survey of the the Leper in Francis’s writings.
This is simply
gathering the instances of the lepers in Francis’ life as found in the FAED.
In the Early Rule in Chapter
VIII Francis cautions against the use of money but he makes an exception for
the lepers. “Never the brothers can beg
alms for a manifest need of the lepers.” FAED I p. 70. This is repeated in
Francis’s fragments
In a fragment Francis writes
(1209-1223) “They must rejoice when they live among people considered of little
value and looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the
lepers, and the beggars by the wayside. (FAED I p. 94)
Celano says of Francis and
the lepers” The holy lover of profound humility moved to the lepers and stayed
with them. For God’s sake he served all of them with great love. He washed all the filth from them, and even
cleaned out the pus of their sores, just as he said in hits Testament: … For he used to say that the
sight of lepers was so bitter to him that in the days of his vanity when he saw
their houses even two miles away, he would cover his nose with his hands.”
(FAED I p. 195.)
(Julian of Speyer repeats a
redaction of Celano: FAED p. 374) Later in the Remembrance Celano adds the
detail that the leper disappeared. (FAED II p. 249.) (A short version of the above
is related by the Dominican, Jacopo de Voragine. FAED II p. 790.)
The Legend of the Three
Companions embellishes the story of Francis and the leper. Chapter IV begins
with Francis praying to the Lord “he received this response: ‘Francis,
everything you loved carnally and desired to have, you must despise and hate,
if you with to knew my will. Because once you begin doing this, what before
seemed delightful and sweet will be unbearable and bitter, and what before made
y9ou shudder will offer you great sweetness and enormous delight.’” (FAED II p.
74-75)
Both the Three Companions and
the Assisi Compilation speak of the friars staying with lepers “He wanted the
brothers to stay in hospitals or lepers to serve them.” (FAED II p. 123, p.
166, see also Bonaventure p. 539.)
Bonaventure in the Evening
Sermon of 1255 reflects that Francis ministering to the lepers was one of the
demonstrations of his possessing humility supremely. (FAED II p. 519) This
thought is repeated againg in then Morning Sermon of 1247 in the context of:
“Second, this sevant of God was humbler still in caring for his neighbor.”
(FAED II p. 750)
Bonaventure repeats the story
of the leper of the earlier biographers but he introduces it as part of Francis
desire to be a knight of Christ.: “Recalling the plan of perfection he had
already conceived in this mind, and remembering that he must first conquer
himself if the wanted to become a knight
of Christ, he dismounted from his horse and ran to kiss him.” FAED II p. 533.
The leper disappears and Francis is filled with wonder and joy, and sings
praises to the Lord proposing to embark always on the greater. Later in Chapter
Fourteen on Francis’s death Bonaventure notes: “He burned with a great desire
to return to the humility he practiced at the beginning; to nurse the lepers as
he did at the outset and to treat like a slave once more his body that was
already in a state of collapse from his work.”
(FAED II p. 640)
Bonaventure's Rendition of
the Leper Story. FAED II LMj Chap 1, pp 533-34:
Francis encounter with the
leper:
5 One day, therefore, while he was riding his horse
through the plain that lies below the city of
This unforeseen encounter struck him with not a little
horror.
Recalling the plan of perfection he had already
conceived in his mind, and
remembering that he must first conquer himself if he
wanted to become a knight of Christ,
he dismounted from his horse and ran to kiss him.
As the leper stretched out his hand as if to receive
something,
he gave him money with a kiss.
Immediately mounting his horse, however, and turning
all around,
even though the open plain stretched clear in all
directions,
he could not see the leper anywhere.
He began, therefore, filled with wonder and joy,
to sing praises to the Lord,
while proposing, because of this, to embark always on
the greater. ...
_
One of those days, withdrawn in this way, while he was
praying and
all of his fervor was totally absorbed in God, Christ
Jesus appeared to him as fastened to a cross.
His soul melted at the sight, and the memory of
Christ's passion was so impressed on the innermost recesses of his heart.
From that hour, whenever Christ's crucifixion came to
his mind, he could scarcely contain his tears and sighs,
as he later revealed to his companions when he was
approaching the end of his life.
Through this the man of God understood as addressed to
himself the Gospel text:
If you wish to come after me, deny yourself and take
up your cross and follow me.
6From then on he clothed himself with
a spirit of poverty,
a sense of humility, and
an eagerness for intimate piety.
For previously not only had association with lepers
horrified him greatly, so too did
even gazing upon them from a distance. But, now
because of Christ crucified, who
according to the text of the prophet appeared despised
as a leper, he, in order to
despise himself completely, showed deeds of humility
and humanity to lepers with a
gentle piety. He visited their houses frequently,
generously distributed alms to them,
and with a great drive of compassion kissed their
hands and their mouths.b
a. This is the first of many ecstatic experiences described in Bonaventure's portrait,
cf. I 5; II1; III 6; VIII 10; IX 2; X 1-4; XI 13; XII 1.
It is clear that, for Bonaventure, Francis was a model of the Christian caught in ecstasy.
b. Bonaventure now introduces the word compassio [compassion] that appears five times (1 6; VIII 1,5,6; XIV 4)
suggesting more than miseratio [an act of kindness] or misericordia [a heart sensitive to suffering].
Compassion () has the sense of suffering with another.
Notes on MICHAEL F. CUSATO OF SNAKES AND ANGELS pp.
68-74
But if Francis considered the
Muslims amici, it was not in the
sense that they were emotionally friendly to each other, had a personal bond as
friends, but, more profoundly, that he
considered them to be-knew them to be-his fratres
(his brothers). Francis told his
friars that he was going to
This profound statement was but the logical and bold
extension, the implication as it were, of what had been so indelibly revealed
to him at the moment of his conversion in 1206. Led among the lepers outside
Assisi, Francis had come to the cardinal insight of his life: namely, that all
men and women without exception were creatures of the same Creator God; that
all men and women were endowed with the same dignity and worth and received the
same grace of salvation; that all, without exception, were fratres et sorores, brothers and sisters one to another. This is, what I have called elsewhere, Francis's insight of the universal
fraternity of all creatures, especially those most difficult of creatures:
human beings. Therefore, everything
that breaks the bonds of this sacred human fraternity created by God-through
violence and bloodshed, through the destructive and abusive use of power,
through the placing of oneself over and against others for the private
advantage of one to the disadvantage of others-is what, for Francis,
constitutes sin. Moreover, to understand what Francis means by sin is to
understand what he means when he says that he began to "do penance." "To do penance" is to distance
oneself from all those actions and attitudes that threaten to rupture the bonds
of the human fraternity. And to understand what he means by penance is to
understand the essential content of the penitential preaching of Francis and
his brothers.83
This message—this vision-of
the universal fraternity of all creatures is what Francis and his brothers went
to the
Notes from MICHAEL CUSATO “OF SNAKES AND ANGELS” pp. 70-74
________In Michael Cusato, Jacques Dalarum and Carla Salvati. The Stigmata of Francis of Assisk: New
Studies New Perspectives.
Among many other resources for the Testament,
see Noel Muscat's for his reflections on the Testament.
http://www.ofin.org.mt/noelmuscat/notes/
[Prayer](1225-1226)
50 Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
give us miserable ones the
grace to do for You alone
what we know you want us to
do and always to desire what pleases You.
51 inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened
and inflamed by the fire of
the Holy Spirit,
may we be able to follow in
the footprints of Your beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, 52and,
by Your grace alone, may we make our way to You,
Most High, Who live and rule
in perfect Trinity and simple
Unity, and are glorified God almighty, forever and ever. Amen.
From FAED I A Letter to the
Entire Order, pp. 120-121
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